Washburn trees bear storm scars
Nearly two months after powerful winds and hail ripped through Washburn, the scars remain easy to spot in the city’s trees.
Some are gone altogether. Others lost limbs or tops, and still others remain standing despite damage that isn’t readily visible from the ground.
Those scars drew the attention of North Dakota Forest Service Community Forestry Assistant Beth Peske during an Aug. 21 visit to the community, when she toured some of Washburn’s hardest-hit areas and examined trees that survived the July 24 storm.
Peske toured primarily on Washburn’s south side with Forestry Board President Zach Bredlow and Vice President Phaidra Yunker, stopping at several locations to take a closer look at the damage.
Throughout the tour, Peske repeatedly remarked on the sheer size of some of the mature trees that had been lost and how devastating their absence was. At one point, she said some of the destruction “looked like tornado damage,” a comparison she used to put the severity of what she was seeing into words, not to suggest the storm was a tornado.
Losing those mature trees isn’t something that can be undone with a few seasons of new planting.